For decades, a mysterious figure dressed in black, his features cloaked by a wide-brimmed hat and scarf, crept into a Baltimore churchyard to lay three roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.

Now, a man in his 90s who led the fight to preserve the historic site says the visitor was his creation.

My issue is with the author of the piece linked, not snopes for posting it. But this issue doesn't appear to be "solved" at all; Porpora makes a claim that he originated/made up Poe's graveyard visitor sometime in the 70's, but this would seem to be strongly contested.

According to the article, one guy seems to have found an article about the graveyard visitor dating 20 years prior to when Porpora claims to have started it.

My issue is with the author of the piece linked, not snopes for posting it. But this issue doesn't appear to be "solved" at all; Porpora makes a claim that he originated/made up Poe's graveyard visitor sometime in the 70's, but this would seem to be strongly contested.

Yes, it is contested. But he seems to know quite a bit about how the story spread and about the area so I don't think it's unlikely he's telling a fairly large chunk of the truth. The rest could possibly be explained by previous visits by others or by stories that turn out to be not quite the same when further examined. I think his "revelations" do make it look much less likely that there was a single visitor who visited for four decades.

Undeterred by controversy, a mysterious visitor paid his annual tribute at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, placing three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac before stealing away into the darkness.

Nearly 150 people had gathered outside the cemetery of Westminster Presbyterian Church, but the man known as the "Poe toaster" was, as usual, able to avoid being spotted by the crowd, said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.

In this age of surveillance cameras, much less "nearly 150 people" standing around waiting for this dude to show up, nobody noticed a guy walk up and leave flowers and a bottle at the site? What, did everyone turn to the left at the same time when the guy did this?

From the tombstone of Edgar Allan Poe, one can reach the street by taking a narrow dirt path between two tall stone mausoleums and crouching for a few steps underneath a portion of Westminster Hall.

This was a favorite getaway route for the Poe Toaster, the mysterious man in black who for decades left three roses and an unfinished bottle of Martell cognac at Poe's grave on the birthday of the father of macabre fiction.

The tradition ended four years ago, just as mysteriously, when the visitor failed to appear.

In this age of surveillance cameras, much less "nearly 150 people" standing around waiting for this dude to show up, nobody noticed a guy walk up and leave flowers and a bottle at the site? What, did everyone turn to the left at the same time when the guy did this?